SoftwarePlant, the company responsible for BigPicture, BigGantt and BigTemplate, has been acquired by Appfire, the Atlassian app specialist. The acquisition strengthens the Appfire portfolio with a PPM solution already closely integrated with Jira. While a blog by Olgierd Borówka states that this opens up a whole new area of growth, it may also close a few doors as the focus shifts to Jira and the Atlassian ecosystem.
Appfire has more than 170 apps split into six categories.
- Workflow and automation
- Project Portfolio Management
- Business Intelligence and Reporting
- Administrative Tools
- Developer Tools
- Publishing
Will the SoftwarePlant roadmaps evolve to create integrations with some of these apps to provide a powerful addition to Jira? Will it continue to provide integrations to many more PPM solutions providing the glue that links them together.
Tom Kucharski, co-founder and CEO of SoftwarePlant, commented: “Since the beginning, our mission was to help companies manage large initiatives regardless of the task management tool teams use. Typical project and portfolio management solutions are narrowly defined, and if a company decides to use another solution, everyone has to migrate.
“Our goal was to introduce a project portfolio solution that wouldn’t interfere with teams’ practices. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we have a deep bi-directional integration with existing team management tools.”
Appfire focused on growth
This is the first acquisition Appfire has made since it received $100 million in funding from TA Associates. It shows the ambition for growth that Appfire has, and more acquisitions may follow. This a natural add on for Appfire. It also brings an impressive customer list that Appfire will hope to expand the wallet share within.
Randall Ward, co-founder and CEO of, Appfire said, “The rapidly expanding PPM market is at the center of the digital transformation wave and ripe for disruption. SoftwarePlant’s team and technology combined with our experience scaling software businesses will allow us to offer a compelling alternative solution.
“Tom and Mike know this space intimately and share our exciting vision for BigPicture, including integrating many apps within our portfolio and expansion to other popular ecosystems.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
It is a good acquisition for Appfire. The question remains on the future focus for BigPicture. It could take several strategic directions, despite Kucharski’s word. It will be interesting to see what happens. Kucharski has not yet updated his job title, and it is unclear what position his role in the larger company is. Will the leadership team stay in place? There is a big opportunity here, and a new journey is about to begin. When the dust has settled on the integration, it will be intriguing to see what arises.
The news comes only a week after SoftwarePlant released the latest versions of its products. Hopefully, the next release will provide further insights on the company’s direction.
